The world's fastest steam locomotive's 75th anniversary

The grandson of the man who designed the world's fastest steam locomotive said
seeing it reunited with its five surviving sister engines, exactly 75 years
after it set its ubroken speed record, has made him extremely proud.

By Radhika Sanghani and agencies

10:59AM BST 03 Jul 2013

Tim Godfrey, whose grandfather Sir Nigel Gresley designed the record-breaking Mallard, watched as it was shunted into the Great Hall of the National Railway Museum in York on its 75th anniversary.

The 1937 locomotive reached a speed of 126pmh for a few fleeting seconds in 1938, in a feat that steam engines never repeated again and modern trains rarely achieve.

Mr Godfrey, who was wearing his grandfather's hat for the occasion, said seeing his grandfather's legacy in the metal was a genuine privilege.

The steam locomotive 'Dominion of Canada' (centre) on display with two of the other locomotives - The 'Dwight D Eisenhower' (L) and the 'Mallard' (R) (Getty Images)

"I think it's wonderful," he said. "I think it's great to see all these beautiful locomotives so beautifully kept by the NRM and the two from across the Atlantic who have been restored back to their former glory.

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"Seventy five years ago, Mallard came out of the works in Doncaster in the same month I was born in 1938.

"All I can say is Mallard looks a lot better than I do at 75."

Mr Godfrey said the enduring attraction of Mallard and other A4s was due to the fact they were "brilliant peformers designed for speed, efficiency, comfort and everything else" and their swooping aerodynamic lines, sculpted in a wind tunnel, are still echoed by train designers today.

He said although his grandfather died when he was still a child, his family has kept his memory alive.

The dials and controls inside the cab of the Mallard locomotive (Rex)

Mallard will be reunited with her five surviving sister locomotives - two of which have been shipped from North America and restored - to commemorate her anniversary today.

Despite its unique place in history, Mallard was one of 35 near identical A4-class locomotives designed by Sir Nigel.

The six survivors include Dominion of Canada, which now sits next to Mallard at the National Railway Museum after it was shipped from Montreal last October and restored especially for the anniversary.

And the Dwight D Eisenhower - another transatlantic expat - has also rolled back into York and been treated to a scrub-up for the occasion.

Union of South Africa and the Sir Nigel Gresley, will join them around the museum's Great Hall turntable for what organisers have dubbed The Great Gathering.

Bittern, the final survivor, travelled from London Kings Cross under its own steam on Saturday after it was granted special permission to make a celebratory 90mph run up the East Coast Main Line to York - 15mph over the normal limit for steam trains.

It reached a top speed of 92mph and arrived on time.

The Mallard locomotive inside the National Railway Museum in York (Rex)

Modelled in a wind tunnel, the Doncaster-built A4s' swooping art deco lines made them look like they were breaking records even when they were standing still.

But LNER's prime objective was simply to build a fleet of luxury express trains for its high-speed East Coast Mainline service, and one of the most long-standing speed records in history happened virtually by chance.

Mallard is thought to have been plucked from the pack because it was one of the newest locomotives and was fitted with a new performance exhaust, which Gresley wanted to test on the engine's home turf - the East Coast Mainline near Grantham.

"Mallard didn't really set out on that run to be a record-breaker," Coulls, the museum's senior curator of rail vehicle collections, said.

"They went to see what they could get out of it and it had a test car on the back which was noting down all the measurements.

"And they got the chance really on Stoke Bank. And they went for it.

"They knew that the only chance they could get to go that fast was on this part of the line.

"The record was made over not more than a couple of miles.

"It was quite a short distance but it was enough to get Mallard's place in the record books."

3rd June 1938: Fireman T H Bray (left) with driver R J Duddington who made history by driving the LNER locomotive Mallard at 126 mph. They are in the dynamometer car at Kings Cross station, London studying the instruments which recorded the record-breaking feat. (Getty Images)

A July 1938 edition of the Railway Gazette rather reservedly reported: "A very remarkable speed record was set up by the London & North Eastern Railway on Sunday last.

"The record clearly shows the maximum to have been no merely momentary peak, but maintained at an even figure... "

Less widely reported was the fact that Mallard broke in spectacular fashion soon after it nudged 126mph and had to limp back to the workshop to have a bearing replaced.

(PA)

Bizarrely, Gresley, who attended the record-breaking run, refused to accept the speed recorded by the dynamometer car, though he was confident the German speed record of 124.5 mph had been surpassed.

Others were less sceptical and the Mallard still wears a gleaming golden plaque on its side that reads: "On July 3 1938 this locomotive attained a world speed record for steam traction of 126 miles per hour."

(Getty Images)

Mr Coulls said: "Mallard's record was the pinnacle of steam and it was the swansong because these locomotives, within two years, were hauling troop trains.

"It's special because of what it did on that day in July '38, but for 20 years after it just settled down to being just another steam engine.

"By the end of their time, the A4s were dirty, they were unkempt and the glamour had gone."

The place where Mallard achieved its record is marked with this sign on a stretch of the East Coast Mainline near Grantham, Lincolnshire (Alamy)

As British Rail's 1955 modernisation plan began sweeping steam away, Mallard quietly ended its working life.

It was withdrawn from service in 1963, while other A4s laboured on for a few years longer before making their final journey to scrapyards.

But Mallard was spared and treated to a full restoration by the National Railway Museum in the mid-1980s, where it is now one of the their biggest draws.